Secret Recipe (Continued)

Every time it stopped, Jian Mo would go over and part the grass, find a clump of fuzzy leaves underneath, and dig a little with a small hoe to dig out the fresh ginseng.

Jian Mo couldn't help but pat Jiujiu's bottom and praise her, "Jiujiu, you did a great job! I'll give you something nice to eat when we get back."

Jiujiu, head held high and chest puffed out. "Jiujiu!"

Banjiu and the others said enviously, "When did Jiujiu's sense of smell become so keen? Flying-Winged Beast don't seem to have a particularly keen sense of smell."

Qing Kuo said, "The Flying-Winged Beast's sense of smell is average, but Jiujiu is so greedy, what food can escape its nose?"

Jiujiu, unaware that they were mocking it, grinned and stuck out its tongue. "Jiujiu!"

Everyone searched together, and little by little, the grass in the baskets accumulated until they became two large baskets.

It was already dark, so everyone stopped walking.

Qing Kuo: "Finding this far should be enough. If not, we can search for another day tomorrow."

Jian Mo: "That's about enough. There probably aren't many ginseng roots left on this grassland. Tomorrow we'll take them to the Forest Rock Tribe and ask. If they want them, we'll look for more tomorrow, so we don't waste our energy."

Qing Kuo: "I reckon they'll want them. From your description, they seem to have good tempers."

Jian Mo sighed, "I hope so. Searching for ginseng is too tiring."

Fresh ginseng is quite fresh, Jian Mo thought that while it was still fresh, she should send it to the Forest Rock Tribe.

If left out for another day, it will look much worse and won't be as appealing.

No one had any objections.

So, early the next morning, Jian Mo and his group broke away from the main force and headed south, riding their Jiujiu towards the Forest Rock Tribe.

Jiujiu flew very fast, and they arrived at the Forest Rock Tribe not long after the sun rose.

Hearing the noise, the giant beast sleeping on the grass slowly stretched out its head and looked up at them.

Upon recognizing the familiar faces, the giant beast from the Forest Rock Tribe asked, "It's you again? What's the matter?"

Jian Mo said, "We've come this time to exchange the glue formula with you. It's the kind of glue you gave us a few days ago."

The giant beast of the Forest Rock Tribe: "Oh-- Jointed Scorpion Bug --feces--plus--animal hide--is enough--no--need--to-change-it."

After saying that, the giant beast's head slowly drooped down, and it looked like it was about to shrink into a ball again.

Jian Mo never expected that the people of the Forest Rock Tribe would reveal the secret recipe so easily.

They painstakingly inquired about the preferences of the Forest Rock Tribe and painstakingly dug up ginseng, but in the end, they didn't use it at all.

Seeing that the giant beast was about to shrink back, Jian Mo quickly said, "Wait—"

At that moment, a head peeked out from the gaps in the giant beast's armor. "Is there anything else?"

Jian Mo looked closely and realized it was a sub-beastman, probably from the Forest Rock Tribe.

It turns out their orc was lying on top of the orc!

Orcs also speak slowly, but much more so than giant beastmen, making them much easier to communicate with.

Jian Mo quickly said, "We brought some ginseng with us, intending to change the recipe. You can take the ginseng and eat it."

The orc's attitude softened. "No need, digging up ginseng is too much trouble. You can take it back and eat it. Jointed Scorpion Bug are easy to find; just look under the rocks, you'll most likely find them."

After thinking for a moment, the orc said, "To make glue, any kind of animal hide will do. About nine handfuls of hide plus one handful of insect excrement, boil them until they are almost melted, then take them out and pound them together into a paste before boiling it again."

After hearing him finish speaking slowly and in one breath, Jian Mo quickly said, "Okay, thank you. I've left the ginseng here."

Orc: "No need. We eat grass one patch at a time. If we find some, we find some; if we don't, we don't."

With that, the orc shrank into the gaps in the giant beast armor and ignored them.

Jian Mo and Wu Jiong looked at each other, both with blank expressions in their eyes.

They won't even accept ginseng delivered to their door because they're too lazy to pick it up or eat it.

Jian Mo, "What do we do now? Do you know Jointed Scorpion Bug?"

Wu Jiong: "I've seen it before, I'll recognize it."

Jian Mo: "Shall we go look for it?"

Jiujiu was standing behind them, jumped up. "Jiujiu!"

On this grassland, gray-white boulders are scattered everywhere.

Some of the boulders are actually orcs from the Forest Rock Tribe curled up in a ball, while others are real stones.

After careful examination, they went to search on the natural boulders.

They hadn't been searching for long when they found their first Jointed Scorpion Bug in a crevice between the boulders and the soil.

Jointed Scorpion Bug resemble spiders, but are much flatter and have slender bodies.

Sensing the threat, the Jointed Scorpion Bug's legs, which were supporting it on the ground, suddenly flipped over, all pointing upwards, revealing black, venomous stingers at the tips—a truly frightening sight.

Jian Mo paused for a moment, then took out the long chopsticks they used for eating from his basket. He used the chopsticks to pick up the Jointed Scorpion Bug directly. "Alright, you can clean up the worm droppings now."

Jiujiu from behind, watching Jian Mo.

The droppings of the Jointed Scorpion Bug are small, black, and irregularly shaped granules.

There wasn't much droppings where a single Jointed Scorpion Bug had been; after collecting them, the droppings weren't even as big as a chestnut.

They collected along the way.

Later, Jian Mo discovered that Jiujiu could keenly smell the scent of Jointed Scorpion Bug, so she had Jiujiu lead the way.

Jiujiu slowly sniffed around, sometimes finding Jointed Scorpion Bug on boulders, but more often finding them in abandoned caves of the Forest Rock Tribe.

Wu Jiong: "It's probably not an abandoned cave, but one that's temporarily not in use. Animals likely used it last winter."

Jian Mo: "Really? So many holes, how can they possibly use them all?"

Wu Jiong pointed to the wall of the earthen cave. "It should be. You can see there are still fresh scratches here, and the earthen wall is relatively dry. I remember a piece of news. I heard that the Forest Rock Tribe doesn't have a fixed habitat. Instead, they've dug all sorts of caves across the grassland to take shelter, resting wherever they can find food."